[in song]
Marian Paroo: Do you think that I'd allow a common masher - ? Now, really, mama. I have my standards where men are concerned and I have no intention...
Mrs. Paroo: I know all about your standards and if you don't mind my sayin' so there's not a man alive who could hope to measure up to that blend of Paul Bunyan, Saint Pat, and Noah Webster you've concocted for yourself out of your Irish imagination, your Iowa stubbornness, and your li'berry full of books!


--Pert Kelton (as Mrs. Paroo) in The Music Man

[in song]
Mrs. Paroo: When a woman's got a husband, and you've got none, why should she take advice from you? Even if you can quote Balzac and Shakespeare and all them other high-falutin' Greeks.


--Pert Kelton (as Mrs. Paroo) in The Music Man

[Minnie enters room and spots liquor bottle not knowing that it's empty]
Minnie: Ah, there you are sweetheart.
[to liquor bottle]
Lorry Evans: Say, if you want any more you'll have to wring it out of him to get it.
[motions to her drunk companion]
Minnie: He looks wrung out now... why didn't he eat the bottle?


--Pert Kelton (as ) in Bed of Roses

[On Marion's choosiness when it comes to men]
Mrs. Paroo: It's a well-known principle that if you keep the flint in one drawer and the steel in the other, you'll never strike much of a fire.


--Pert Kelton (as Mrs. Paroo) in The Music Man